Intellivision Amico’s trademark changed to ‘abandoned’

[MrBeefy]

40 minutes ago, number6 said:

No kidding.

But my "-meant- to be a relaying of information from the company" referred to the broadcast in general. I'm sorry that wasn't obvious to your reading.

 

#6

They've always used these YouTubers to spread talking points for them. Whether it was attacking Pat to trying to convince their SEC paperwork from StartEngine is great.

 

Fits in line with their astroturfing. They can't put out a legit plan, message, or actions so they need people to fake it in a sad attempt to seem legit or good.

[number6]

30 minutes ago, MrBeefy said:

They've always used these YouTubers to spread talking points for them. Whether it was attacking Pat to trying to convince their SEC paperwork from StartEngine is great.

 

Fits in line with their astroturfing. They can't put out a legit plan, message, or actions so they need people to fake it in a sad attempt to seem legit or good.

I'm trying to express one thought at a time to avoid TLDR. I did make an error and tried to convey 2 different thoughts in my prior post. I'll try to do better in the future.

So, new thought:

I also look at "the human element".

I truly see the desire behind the broadcast to inform fans. I just think that having to "reach out" and then put things in your own words to express this (as opposed to having a firm foundation for discussion of an actual document) leads to an inevitable result.

 

#6

[Hwlngmad]

12 hours ago, MrBeefy said:

I don't think anyone denies there being prototypes. However, I do think there is a difference between prototype and manufacture ready. Even if you remove Covid the console was yet to be manufacture ready in 2020.

 

$200 was pushing it IMO. They jumped the Shark Shark once it went above $200.

Agree with both of these points.  It doesn't look like that this was going to be ready on time even if COVID hadn't hit. 

 

Also, $200 was about the max I think a lot of people would have paid for the Amico, and that was when it was with two controllers and a lot of classic heritage games built / loaded in a la the INTV Flashback done by AtGames.  At $280 with one controller along with six pack in games that are, let's face it, non-AAA titles (more like A league games at best) it just doesn't have much of chance when it is smack in between two SKUs of the Switch and right next to the Xbox Series S, not to mention other esoteric gaming devices like the Playdate that has (seemingly) gotten a good amount of gaming press.

[+Lathe26]

15 hours ago, Rev said:

149-179.00 FTFY

867-5309 FTFY

[+CurlyQ]

[crade]

15 hours ago, Cebus Capucinis said:

I think this is a fair take regarding the "scam" element, but I think one has to disconnect the "laughter at Amico for failing" from "laughing at the former CEO for the trainwreck." Doing otherwise, to me, seems to fall prey to the old "you just want it to fail, hAtErZ" trope. I think those who are laughing/deriding are more seeing what they think is just desserts for the pork pie dinner.

 

 

Also in before a billion responses of "well, *I* didn't want it to fail, BUT...."

BUT.... Tommy changed my mind.

 

I don't think it's a fair take; you don't need to have a fake product to be scamming.

I'm convinced at this point Tommy not just ignorant and was lying through his teeth to try to get people to give money and support his "vision" and using deception to get people's money and support is a scam.  What he wanted to do with the money, whether he still paid people, still intended to make or release "something",  was convinced it was "for the greater good", whatever he told himself to excuse it blah blah who cares.  Excusing that crap is why we can't have nice things 

[1980gamer]

14 hours ago, MrBeefy said:

Where was a majority of the CEO's time spent? AtariAge and YouTube talking to older men who were interested in retro gaming. That is your target and your market. If you disagree with that you are admitting that they are a super innept company because they talked to no one basically in their target demographic.

I will grant you, a lot of time was spent on Atari Age.  But how do you know where the rest of the time was spent?

I spend a lot of time on AA.  Yet I work all day and do many other things.  I whined down on AA.  Or pop in while on a break from something else.

 

If you are not in the "target" group, how do you know IE wasn't?   

 

On AA, they will talk to US differently than other groups.  We WANT retro.  So, you pander to the audience.

 

The "target" audience was only talked about here, when talk was regarding company strategy / goals / research etc.

 

I don't turn on Sports talk radio to find out about events in the middle east.

[crade]

5 minutes ago, 1980gamer said:

I whined down on AA

I think we've all whined down on AA on occasion!  I do most of mine in the HSC

[rayik]

56 minutes ago, 1980gamer said:

I will grant you, a lot of time was spent on Atari Age.  But how do you know where the rest of the time was spent?

I spend a lot of time on AA.  Yet I work all day and do many other things.  I whined down on AA.  Or pop in while on a break from something else.

 

If you are not in the "target" group, how do you know IE wasn't?   

 

On AA, they will talk to US differently than other groups.  We WANT retro.  So, you pander to the audience.

 

The "target" audience was only talked about here, when talk was regarding company strategy / goals / research etc.

 

I don't turn on Sports talk radio to find out about events in the middle east.

So where was IEs non-AtariAge time spent?  What links are there to see it?

 

Point is it’s easy to assume they might be messaging elsewhere. I can’t find it.

Edited July 21, 2022 by rayik

[Rev]

1 hour ago, CurlyQ said:

That reminds me, will the former CEO still be including signed items in the Founders edition release?   

[number6]

4 minutes ago, rayik said:

So where was IEs non-AtariAge time spent?  What links are there to see it?

 

Point is it’s easy to assume they might be messaging elsewhere. I can’t find it.

You do also mean beyond social media and all the promotions therein, right?

 

#6

[MrBeefy]

51 minutes ago, 1980gamer said:

I will grant you, a lot of time was spent on Atari Age.  But how do you know where the rest of the time was spent?

I spend a lot of time on AA.  Yet I work all day and do many other things.  I whined down on AA.  Or pop in while on a break from something else.

 

If you are not in the "target" group, how do you know IE wasn't?   

 

On AA, they will talk to US differently than other groups.  We WANT retro.  So, you pander to the audience.

 

The "target" audience was only talked about here, when talk was regarding company strategy / goals / research etc.

 

I don't turn on Sports talk radio to find out about events in the middle east.

I didn't want retro, but simple affordable family games.

 

I guess you forgot about all the hours the CEO spent on YT for their infomercials? My household is more of the target demographic than you might know.

 

Instead of asking how do I not know they didn't spend time, and actually show me where they did. Mom 2.0 and a half hearted AARP article. There I helped you get started. 

 

3 minutes ago, rayik said:

So where was IEs non-AtariAge time spent?  What links are there to see it?

 

Point is it’s easy to assume they might be messaging elsewhere. I can’t find it.

Search Tommy Tallarico Intellivision Interview and you will see. Not many mommy blogger types seen. ?

[Razzie.P]

1 hour ago, 1980gamer said:

I will grant you, a lot of time was spent on Atari Age.  But how do you know where the rest of the time was spent?

I spend a lot of time on AA.  Yet I work all day and do many other things.  I whined down on AA.  Or pop in while on a break from something else.

 

That’s a good point and I agree completely. 

 

1 hour ago, 1980gamer said:

If you are not in the "target" group, how do you know IE wasn't?   

 

On AA, they will talk to US differently than other groups.  We WANT retro.  So, you pander to the audience.

 

The "target" audience was only talked about here, when talk was regarding company strategy / goals / research etc.

 

This though, I believe the lack of any proof is proof enough.   There are so many people scrutinizing every single detail of this thing, hard to imagine anything is missed, including the pandering to their "proper target" audience.   Any positive reception would have been brought up 10x for each detail by Tommy and team, and any negative reception would have been drudged up here, Reddit, youtube, etc by them dadgummed gamer racists haterz types.   We may not be 100% in tune and active in those “target group” circles, but they’re not secret clubs or anything, so those interested parties can and would snoop in there and see what’s up.

[1980gamer]

31 minutes ago, Razzie.P said:

That’s a good point and I agree completely. 

 

This though, I believe the lack of any proof is proof enough.   There are so many people scrutinizing every single detail of this thing, hard to imagine anything is missed, including the pandering to their "proper target" audience.   Any positive reception would have been brought up 10x for each detail by Tommy and team, and any negative reception would have been drudged up here, Reddit, youtube, etc by them dadgummed gamer racists haterz types.   We may not be 100% in tune and active in those “target group” circles, but they’re not secret clubs or anything, so those interested parties can and would snoop in there and see what’s up.

Maybe, or Maybe TT was not the face of such communications?  

 

I'll be honest.  With the shit show from people here and youtube... If I were IE, I would not A. Make TT the face of Amico outside of Retro and B. Would not want any of us to know about any such happenings.  

 

But that is just me.

[MrBeefy]

1 hour ago, Razzie.P said:

That’s a good point and I agree completely. 

 

This though, I believe the lack of any proof is proof enough.   There are so many people scrutinizing every single detail of this thing, hard to imagine anything is missed, including the pandering to their "proper target" audience.   Any positive reception would have been brought up 10x for each detail by Tommy and team, and any negative reception would have been drudged up here, Reddit, youtube, etc by them dadgummed gamer racists haterz types.   We may not be 100% in tune and active in those “target group” circles, but they’re not secret clubs or anything, so those interested parties can and would snoop in there and see what’s up.

There were two articles written outside of retro or retro adjacent crowds.

 

One is from Romper and was after Mom 2.0. Romper focuses on parenting and motherhood. https://www.romper.com/p/amico-a-new-video-gaming-console-wants-to-host-your-familys-next-game-night-34994601

 

Another one is from moms.com. Which also focuses a lot on parenting as such as you might imagine. Also written around Mom 2.0. The quote on price is worded in a way that isn't praising but doesn't sound too negative. The cost is not that bad, and prices will start at just $249. Mom needs to keep in mind that this will include the console, two controllers and 6 games.

https://www.moms.com/amico-gaming-console-details/

 

Enjoy your reading from Mother Beef.

[mr_me]

7 hours ago, number6 said:

I'm trying to express one thought at a time to avoid TLDR. I did make an error and tried to convey 2 different thoughts in my prior post. I'll try to do better in the future.

So, new thought:

I also look at "the human element".

I truly see the desire behind the broadcast to inform fans. I just think that having to "reach out" and then put things in your own words to express this (as opposed to having a firm foundation for discussion of an actual document) leads to an inevitable result.

 

#6

In this case what DJC said was nothing the company hasn't previously said directly.  They've said the hardware is done.  They've said they are in pre-production.  I've seen plenty of DJC and never thought of him as a source for news.  He does repeat news, as other youtubers do.

 

It's not unusual for an organisation to intentionally leak news through the media.  If Intellivision Entertainment chooses to do that, the youtuber doesn't need any more incentive other than having the scoop.

 

-------------------

Regarding not going after their primary target markets, it has really been too early to go after any market, and that includes the retro videogames audience.  The Mom 2.0 conference sponsorship was scheduled far in advance for a fall system release.  The release never happened so the sponsorship wasn't necessary but already committed.  All the youtube appearances and online discussions weren't necessary.  Showing in progress development work doesn't help them.  The former CEO is himself a retro videogame fan, a collector, and likes to talk about Amico.

 

2 hours ago, 1980gamer said:

Maybe, or Maybe TT was not the face of such communications?  

 

I'll be honest.  With the shit show from people here and youtube... If I were IE, I would not A. Make TT the face of Amico outside of Retro and B. Would not want any of us to know about any such happenings.  

 

But that is just me.

I think he'd do alright with the moms.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/cynthiapjenkins_gamechangers-playwithpurpose-activity-6802701178389037056-X-ai

Edited July 21, 2022 by mr_me

[SegaSnatcher]

2 hours ago, 1980gamer said:

Maybe, or Maybe TT was not the face of such communications?  

 

I'll be honest.  With the shit show from people here and youtube... If I were IE, I would not A. Make TT the face of Amico outside of Retro and B. Would not want any of us to know about any such happenings.  

 

But that is just me.

If IE did properly reach out to that other demographic then it obviously didn't go well given the preorder numbers.  I look at the numbers and to me they represent Tommy focusing on the INTV retro crowd and not the real target market of casuals and non-gamers.  You can't deny those preorder numbers are tragic for a system that is supposed to reach to hundreds of thousands to possibly millions of families.  

[Matt_B]

33 minutes ago, SegaSnatcher said:

If IE did properly reach out to that other demographic then it obviously didn't go well given the preorder numbers.  I look at the numbers and to me they represent Tommy focusing on the INTV retro crowd and not the real target market of casuals and non-gamers.  You can't deny those preorder numbers are tragic for a system that is supposed to reach to hundreds of thousands to possibly millions of families.  

The problem would be that if you're going to reach that audience you've got to get some coverage in the mainstream media, which is only going to happen when they're in a position to start sending out review units.

 

Things would probably have gone better with the retro crowd too if they'd actually been able to give prominent YouTubers their own units for evaluation, rather than just inviting people along to stage-managed events.

 

I'd just see it as yet another symptom that they weren't even remotely close to ready.

[1980gamer]

17 minutes ago, mr_me said:

I think he'd do alright with the moms.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/cynthiapjenkins_gamechangers-playwithpurpose-activity-6802701178389037056-X-ai

I wasn't worried about the Moms liking him,  I was thinking of all the negative that follows him. 

I remember before Amico.  Just him buying Intellivision had a bunch of bugs crawl out of the woodwork.  I had honestly never heard of him prior.

 

I guess maybe I had seen him do game reviews or whatever, but it didn't really stick. 

[SegaSnatcher]

13 minutes ago, Matt_B said:

The problem would be that if you're going to reach that audience you've got to get some coverage in the mainstream media, which is only going to happen when they're in a position to start sending out review units.

 

Things would probably have gone better with the retro crowd too if they'd actually been able to give prominent YouTubers their own units for evaluation, rather than just inviting people along to stage-managed events.

 

I'd just see it as yet another symptom that they weren't even remotely close to ready.

This is why "On the launch pad" has turned into a meme among the community who follows this project.   That is why that initial Oct 2020 release date was such BS.  They were nowhere close into the project to be giving out a firm release date like that. That is why I'm still convinced if you took Covid out of the situation they still couldn't hit that date because they were too far behind in the development process.  

Again we are in 2022 and they still don't even have all the pack in games finished.  That is ridiculous. 

[mr_me]

35 minutes ago, SegaSnatcher said:

...

Again we are in 2022 and they still don't even have all the pack in games finished.  That is ridiculous.

I'm assuming this is from John Alvarado back in March.  He was speaking generally about all the games they've shown, that they're all either through gold master q/a, in it, or entering it.  Did he say something else.

 

Software at that stage have already gone through alpha and beta bug fixing.  The one packin that might have gone longest through development is probably Back Talk Party.  We really don't know any specifics about that.

Edited July 22, 2022 by mr_me

[SegaSnatcher]

2 minutes ago, mr_me said:

I'm assuming this is from John Alvarado back in March.  He was speaking generally about all the games they've shown, that they're all either through gold master q/a, in it, or entering it.  Did he say something else.

I'm the one who asked him directly about the state of the built in games and he said only a couple went Gold.  They all should be Gold by now for a console that was supposed to release in 2020.  

The only explaination is either they just are really poor at software development or they haulted software development straight up for whatever reason. 

[1980gamer]

14 minutes ago, Matt_B said:

The problem would be that if you're going to reach that audience you've got to get some coverage in the mainstream media, which is only going to happen when they're in a position to start sending out review units.

 

Things would probably have gone better with the retro crowd too if they'd actually been able to give prominent YouTubers their own units for evaluation, rather than just inviting people along to stage-managed events.

 

I'd just see it as yet another symptom that they weren't even remotely close to ready.

Yes, I don't think they were ready to start marketing to the target audience.  But I stand by my comments.  People were hating on TT before he said boo about Amico.

I get not liking someone, but some real venom over a review MANY years before.  Get over it!  LOL

 

Yes, TT was an original Intellivision fan and in his heart he was always going to shoehorn some Intellivision love into Amico.

We saw that here for certain.  I am happy about that, and I don't think he was early with US.  Providing ideas they were trying, things that were happening etc.

But some here certainly started knocking Amico before anything actually happened or was discussed. Everyone can have an opinion.

 

Full disclosure, I am an investor...  That is, $100 toward an early adopter console.  Not a founders.  I didn't like the early wood grain.  I do like it now

 

Yes, I guess they could have circulated a few consoles for review.  I think they were waiting on some patents to be finalized also.  ( If I remember right?  Long time ago now )

 

Staged events?  I went to one, it wasn't staged.  I took my turn playing Amico a few times.  I loved the controller.  So much better than I expected.  They had a few consoles scattered around.

I played on a few of them.  It was a good time.  Darn kids kicked my butt at these games!! I did alright at Astrosmash,  But that I have a history with    

 

I really hope this thing comes out.  I don't really care what anyone else says. 

I play retro and retro style games.  Classic arcade games etc.  I know this will have games I like.  I don't need to know anything else really.

 

 

[1980gamer]

10 minutes ago, SegaSnatcher said:

I'm the one who asked him directly about the state of the built in games and he said only a couple went Gold.  They all should be Gold by now for a console that was supposed to release in 2020.  

The only explaination is either they just are really poor at software development or they haulted software development straight up for whatever reason. 

Did IE write the pack in games?  I honestly don't know?  I thought they were all farmed out.

Maybe hardware / firmware changes required some reworking of the code, which would put you back to alpha testing.  Been through this myself.  Sometimes, it is really no big deal, but other times...

 

Just think about software you had that worked great and then MS or Apple release an OS update and your fully functional software no longer works. 

 

Changes of a major scale should be trumpeted to all developers ahead of time, but sometimes you think a "minor" change will not have the impact it does.

 

Who knows, I wasn't there... So I certainly don't know.

 

Halted?  Maybe.  Or complete and shelved.  Then with more time to tweak the OS and firmware, maybe they broke something?

 

I am personally in the midst of a system conversion.  I will tell you, decision we made years ago, are biting us now!  We are moving in the right direction, but it is a painful process.

 

[mr_me]

30 minutes ago, SegaSnatcher said:

I'm the one who asked him directly about the state of the built in games and he said only a couple went Gold.  They all should be Gold by now for a console that was supposed to release in 2020.  

The only explaination is either they just are really poor at software development or they haulted software development straight up for whatever reason. 

Yes, and in that March video he didn't answer your question.  He only referred back to what he said earlier about all the games in general.  Some have gone through gold master q/a.  Other games at that stage of development, having gone through alpha and beta testing would only have minor issues, if any, remaining.

Edited July 22, 2022 by mr_me